Numerical study of two braced excavations in Singapore marine clay

Abstract

Excavation projects are common in urban areas. Thus, accurate assessment of wall deformations and ground movements due to an excavation is of great importance to many practising engineers. Two braced excavations in Singapore marine clay are studied in this paper to determine the appropriate soil stiffness to be used in finite element analyses. Consolidation analyses are performed using PLAXIS, a finite element package. Since excavation is an unloading process, the use of unloading soil stiffness is more appropriate. In this paper, an unloading soil stiffness to loading soil stiffness ratio of Singapore marine clay for excavation design is proposed and the influences of some key parameters on an excavation support system are examined.